Months passed by in Stark Towers with the occasional storm at night. Whenever the thunder would fall, Loki would stop whatever he was doing and disappear to his room. Tony would make sure the blinds stayed closed whenever it rained. It became a frequent enough action that everyone else in the tower followed suit. Even JARVIS developed the habit of shielding the frost giant from the outside world.

Loki worked with Bruce and Tony in the lab for a way to regain his magic, but it was all hopeless. They researched all they could, even taking myths into consideration despite Tony's protests that they weren't scientific. Loki reasoned using classic magic related methods might work better than "the scientific method" in this case. The scientific duo agreed to try things his way. Potions were made out of frog eyes, tonics mixed with blood, and they even went on a few expeditions through caves for artifacts that JARVIS scanned as positive with energy matching Loki's during the invasion. Besides freezing in the Nordic lands and having Loki choke on goat blood, nothing worked.

Tony grew a little worried for his ex-magical friend. With each failed attempt at regaining his powers, Loki would get very frustrated and spend hours sulking in his room. Sometimes he'd even work himself into a fit where he'd simply retreat into a dark corner in his mind and just stare blankly ahead. A dark expression would appear on his face and it always unnerved the iron man. Tony would stick a chessboard or a book in his face to get him out of the trance. It usually worked and they'd have an engaging game or reading. But as time passed by...well, that method of distraction started to fail.

As a month went by, bringing more failures and broken theories, Tony had a chat with Bruce and Steve. They sat down in one of the tower's numerous guest rooms and discussed what to do to cool down Loki for a bit. In fact, they all needed a break from their constant searching. Tony poured himself a glass of wine for the first time in...well, he couldn't remember the last time he had a full glass of wine. Or really a full glass of anything alcoholic; he took sips of scotch every now and then, but substituted his usual binging with carbonated beverages.

He ignored the captain's questioning glance and said, "I believe it's time for us to put this magic treasure hunt on hold. I can't start balding."

"Yeah, a break would be nice." Bruce said, holding a warm cup of chai between his palms. "I know Loki won't appreciate it...but I don't think I can handle another narrow escape from a collapsing cave."

"In Iceland. Talk about freezing my ass off," Tony sighed. "I mean, I like Lokes and all but I think we need to change our approach anyway. But besides that, we need something to do on break."

"Like going to sleep? Sitting down and reading a book?"

Tony almost snorted. "I'm sure we need better ideas than that pitched, Green Machine."

"We already go to sleep - well, besides you Tony - and read books." Steve finally piped in.

"I was thinking a slumber party," Tony said. "Cap' could let us use his nail polish and maybe we could discuss your feelings Bruce."

"We all live in the same building though. And I don't own nail polish..." Steve said, taking him seriously.

"No way Captain Obvious," Tony took a long swig of his drink. "How about a regular party then. Hey, Halloween's next week, right? Yeah, let's have a Halloween party."

"What?" Bruce choked on his tea. "I think you're forgetting Loki?"

Bruce nearly fell off his perch on the left corner of the bed, staring at his science bro who sat on the right corner. Steve shifted in his seat on the floor by Bruce's legs.

"What if someone recognizes him? Remember...remember the club incident?" Steve said. "That lady recognized him right before we left."

"Okay, I see you're points."

Bruce and Steve visibly relaxed, scooting back onto their seats on the ground and bed corner.

"We'll just have a costume party! Everyone will be in costume."

"That does NOT make it okay, Tony." Bruce warned. "He'll have an anxiety attack."

"He was fine the last time he was around a lot of people." Tony insisted. "And I'll make it a small party just in case."

"SHIELD might hear-"

"I'll have JARVIS make sure no news reaches Fury and agents stay out." Tony said as if it were final. "Come on, open your eyes and smell the heavily polluted air of New York! A party is the perfect way to relieve stress and have fun. We just need to be loose for a while."

"Tony, promise you won't...fondue with - with uhm..." Steve began.

"I swear I won't have any one night stands. I will limit myself to five drinks and will make sure Loki stays under my wing. This is perfect for him to learn some more culture too."

It was one of their goals to further introduce Loki to the cultures of Midgard. So far the majority of his knowledge came from the movies and books that he was introduced to. He was still connecting dots between customs and history but was on his way to having a very solid understanding of things.

"I'll trust you once again." Bruce sighed. "You need to explain to him what the holiday is."

Loki was resting his head on the table, staring off into space when Tony found him minutes after his quick meeting with the other occupants of the tower. The frost giant was probably wallowing in a pile of self hatred by the expression that seemed locked in his eyes. Tony found himself hovering over him for a moment before gently resting a hand on his shoulder. When he didn't move, he leaned down so that his face was in front of Loki's. "Lokes?"

No reply. Tony waved a hand in front of his eyes. Still no reply.

"It's not your fault, you know. You shouldn't blame yourself for things out of your control."

He was talking about their failure in finding a way to regain Loki's magic. By the way Loki snapped out of his haze and looked at him, he could tell the frost giant thought he was talking about something else.

"How do you know what I am?" he asked in a cautious tone.

Tony gave him a blank look, not knowing what the hell Loki was talking about. "What?"

The two simply looked at each other for moments, both wanting to ask questions but were too hesitant to speak.

"Oh, I see." Loki finally said, looking away.

"Right." Tony said awkwardly. He recovered fast enough though, "Guess what? We're going to do something completely amazing next week."

"Hmm?"

"We're going," A pause for emphasis. "to throw a Halloween party!"

Loki gave him a blank look, really only comprehending the word "party" which he wasn't sure how he felt about that yet. "Hallow Ween?"

"Yes, Lokes. Halloween. It's a totally awesome party. Y'See, back a long time ago, you know when peeps were very religious and stuff, they believed evil spirits would come over on Hallow's Eve or something like that. Yeah, so since they didn't want these spooks to get into their bodies and shit, they decided to dress up..."

A Tony spoke, he flailed his arms around. He made a few hand gestures as he spoke, some supposed to represent bodies and such. Loki watched with amusement; Tony always went on and on about things he felt strongly towards. The frost giant liked watching him speak with that glow in his eyes. It made him forget his own dark thoughts for a moment, instead of his mind wandering he hung on to each of Tony's words like a child keeping a strong hold on a lollipop.

"...and that spooked them so they'd go away! But nowadays we don't really care too much about stuff like that. Ha, nowadays it's just about kids getting free candy from some greasy neighbors and teenagers trying to pass off as ten year olds in order to get some too. But adults can still have fun cause' they have adult costumes and parties. So...yeah. It'll be fun."

"Right. And what shall go on at this feast?" Loki asked, even though he knew the difference between 'party' and 'feast', and could figure out what happened at them on his own. He just wanted Tony to keep talking.

"No, no, not a feast. We won't be eating a deer or roast pig. I'm sorry Leif Erikson. But, we will have lots of Halloween-themed food and decorations. That includes the usual and cliche spider webs, witch cauldrons, eyeballs in the punch. I'll have them include a skeleton and smoke for you too. And maybe some of those cheap-ass but classic..."

Loki eventually stopped processing what he was saying but still held on to the cadence of Tony's voice. He just couldn't help but wonder...why was this holiday so popular with the mortals? It seemed morbid. Skeletons in punch bowls? Smoke and spider webs? Strange, he was sure the Midgardians loved keeping their homes clean. But then again, he couldn't exactly call the Midgardians morbid when the Asgardians had some things that were much more twisted when he really though about it...

"...what do you wanna' be?"

"Excuse me?" Loki blinked, focusing on his words at the wrong moment.

"Your costume, Lokes. What do you want to be?"

It was an hour before the night of the party. Their guests would arrive soon (who were really just a handful of friends plus employees of Tony). The four men had decided that they were going to pick out a costume, have JARVIS buy/custom make it for them, and reveal what they got before the party. It was Steve's idea and everyone thought it'd be something to do. Of course throughout the week, Tony had been nosing around, trying his hardest to find out what his companions were going to be wearing in advance. JARVIS would not let him though, and warned each of his friends whenever Tony tried.

Now, an hour before the party, Tony was lounging on the common room sofa, waiting for the others to arrive. Of course the first person to arrive to the room was Steve with Bruce coming behind him a few seconds later. Tony looked up from his place on the sofa and smiled. Right in front of him stood the captain, dressed as the Statue of Liberty. The iron man couldn't even hold in his laughter. It was too hilarious and an interesting choice.

"JARVIS suggested it..." Steve said sheepishly. "I liked the idea at first..."

"It looks good, Cap'." Bruce reassured him. The scientist was wearing another interesting choice in Tony's opinion. Half of Bruce's face was covered in face paint that resembled a more grotesque face. He also wore a suit and fedora that was split (though cliche) in black on one side, white on the other. Bruce said simply, "I'm Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

"Nice." Tony said, nodding, clearly impressed.

"What are you?" Steve asked.

"Me?" Tony pointed to himself. He was wearing his usual attire; a band tee and jeans. "I'm that actor dude that looks like me. Y'know, the one who's too big of a fan in my opinion, cause' he made a complete replica of my suit. One hundred percent plastic, but yet he claims it's all iron." He couldn't help but roll his eyes. His suits weren't even one hundred percent iron damnit.

"That is not a costume, Tony." Bruce said, crossing his arms. "Go put on something. Everyone's going to be dressed at the party."

"Finnnnneeee." Tony sighed after an intense glaring battle with his science bro who simply met his gaze with a cool calm. "Fine."

So Tony changed quickly, settling on an exact replica of the jumpsuits from Tron: Legacy. Although he wasn't too much of a fan of the movie, he liked the idea that the suit would look amazing on him as it hugged the body, so he ordered one. When he put it on and turned on the light switch for it, he did indeed look sexy. He returned to the common room and sunk back down into his chair. Thirty minutes to go.

Bruce nodded his approval along with Steve although he didn't understand where it was from.

"Where's Loki?" Tony asked.

"He is on his way right now, sir." JARVIS answered, somehow sounding enthusiastic.

Sure enough, moments later, Loki arrived all dressed up and as prepared as he ever was for socialization. "I apologize for the wait. I had JARVIS look up too many tutorials on the makeup."

Well it sure paid off, Tony wanted to say, but he only looked on in awe. Loki was dressed in a nicely tailored, form fitting, and completely suitable Jack Skellington costume. With his height, slim figure, and paint, he appeared to be the perfect Jack. He had taken great care to paint skeletal designs over his hands and face. Though he was already pretty pale, he had taken the time to add a light layer of white to his face and partially exposed chest - you could see hint of collarbone under the collar - and the stitch design by his lips impeccable.

Tony wasn't surprised Loki picked Skellington. Right after Halloween was more thoroughly explained, he had dragged Loki over to an impromptu movie night to watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Surprisingly, Loki thoroughly enjoyed it and it was his favorite Halloween (or Christmas?) movie by far.

"That's amazing." Tony finally said. "Oooh, remind me to take a group picture of us because this is scrapbook worthy."

His companions agreed, each shyly accepting each other's compliments. They were cut short of it though, when JARVIS interrupted to announce the first guest arriving. They moved downstairs to the room Tony specifically designed for parties. It was well decorated with tables, a good food spread, and many decorations (Steve had called Pepper and she had arranged most of it. Tony had put up the decorations himself like a small child). The stood by the entrance and admired the quality before exchanging quick glances as they waited for the guests to make their way to the room.

They all had one thought in common: the party better not be a disaster.

A/N: I'm alive and I couldn't resist a Halloween chapter, I'm sorry. It's my favorite holiday, and don't worry, this isn't just filler to the plot. Anyway, lovelies, thanks for the reviews! I'm so happy that you guys read this and find it amazing. I can't thank you enough for taking the time and leaving lovely reviews. You all are amazing. (:

Two of the costumes here were actually influenced by fanart I saw made by meixx on deviantArt! The costumes for Tony and Cap' in the art have always been my favorite and I love the idea. Go check the artist out if you'd like to see it plus some other quality stuff!

I've always thought of Bruce as being Jekyll/Hyde so the costume was pretty cool. And Loki as Jack Skellington was always one of my Halloween headcanons...I just always thought he would look pretty cool as him haha.

I have loads of homework, but I hope this long chapter was worth the wait! Happy Halloween!